FTX, the bankrupt company once run by disgraced crypto tycoon Sam Bankman Fried, will sell two-thirds of its stake in buzzy AI startup Anthropic for $880 million, a court heard on Monday. This was revealed in documents submitted to.
Anthropic stock was seen as a valuable asset in the remains of the FTX empire, which collapsed in late 2022 when a massive fraud by Bankman Freed and his associates was exposed.
Bankman Fried, 32, was found guilty of numerous charges in November 2023 and is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in federal court in New York, where prosecutors are seeking a sentence of 40 to 50 years in prison. are doing.
The largest portion of Anthropic's shares will be transferred to ATIC Third International Investment Company, part of the United Arab Emirates' Mubadala sovereign wealth fund, according to court filings.
ATIC will pay $500 million for the Anthropic stake, with the rest to be paid by about 20 other buyers, including Bankman Fried's former employer Jane Street Global Trading, according to the documents.
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The move would be a sizable gain for FTX, which invested $500 million in generative AI startup Anthropic in 2021, at the height of its status as a crypto giant.
Founded that year, Anthropic was created by former employees of OpenAI, which developed ChatGPT.
The company is best known for its chatbot Claude, which made headlines for its mission to release an AI model with stricter guardrails than ChatGPT and other chatbot competitors.
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FTX's bankruptcy proceedings are complex and controversial, with court-appointed CEO John J. Ray III tasked with recovering assets to creditors.
FTX said it plans to fully repay customers and reported holding $6.4 billion in cash at the end of February, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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